Buyers have complained to NCDRC and MahaRERA as the developer has failed to deliver their houses; the group has been ordered to repay along with interest

Close on the heels of the DSK meltdown, another city-based realtor is facing the heat with several home buyers backing out from its projects and seeking refund of their money. Marvel Realtors, a big player in Pune’s real estate market, has been asked by several forums now to refund the money paid by buyers to book their homes. The prime reason for this is inordinate delay in completing the projects.

Trouble began with the developer a couple of years ago when a few home buyers approached the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), seeking a refund of money since Marvel Bounty, a project based in Hadapsar, was delayed beyond the promised time. The buyers, Ashish Goel and Khushboo Agarwal, sought their money — Rs 1.34 crore and Rs 1.35 crore, respectively — back.

Their houses in Phase II of the housing project were to be delivered by 2016. The work on the construction has been stalled for a while, which led the buyers to approach the national body. In February this year, the developer was ordered to refund the entire money back along with 10 per cent interest and Rs 25,000 as litigation cost within three months. Marvel directors sought time to refund the money. After repeated extensions when they did not refund, the body asked them to appear, which they failed to do. Now, the NCDRC has issued bailable warrants against the directors of Marvel group.

Mohini Pandharipande bought a flat at Marvel Cascada, Balewadi, in 2015. Due to the failure in delivery, the family initiated cancellation, but the builder is yet to comply; PIC: SACHIN PHULSUNDAR

Similarly, Mohit and Mohini Pandharipande purchased a flat at Marvel Cascada at Balewadi in 2015 for Rs 2.89 crore. The flat was to be delivered in 2015. Due to the failure they initiated the cancellation. While the builder agreed in writing but they didn’t give refund. So, a legal notice was sent in March 2017. Since there was no response from builder, Pandharipande moved to Maharashtra Real Estate Regulatory Authority (MahaRERA) in September 2017. In February this year, MahaRERA ordered the builder to refund the entire amount. Accordingly, Runal, who is co-developer of the project, paid an amount of Rs 1.17 crore. Recently, the RERA tribunal ordered the Marvel Group to repay their share of the money to the home buyers.

The list of cases where the MahaRERA has ordered to refund the money is long. In a slew of orders passed recently, the authority asked the developer to repay buyers in Marvel Izara (Undri), Marvel Castella (Balewadi), Marvel Sangria (NIBM) and Marvel Cerise (Kharadi), along with interest. The amounts to be paid back to the customers, who no longer wish to continue with their bookings, range between Rs 40 lakh and Rs 2.46 crore.

In some of the more recent cases filed by home buyers in MahaRERA, the two sides have reached a settlement.

The Mirror team visited some of the projects only to find that work on them had more or less come to a standstill. In case of Marvel Bounty at Balewadi, work on Phase II was stalled. The situation was no different at Marvel Izara in Undri, where no construction workers were found on site. The project is now being developed by another known developer. At Marvel Sangria in NIBM, finishing touches were being given to some houses which were on the verge of completion, while work on another wing left incomplete and was stalled.

When Mirror reached out to him, Vishwajeet Jhavar, chairman and CEO of Marvel Realtors, said, “We have built our company and brand because of the faith and support of our customers. The delay in our projects are mainly due to the current property market situation, especially the segment that we are in and also due to delayed payments of customers in a few projects. In most of our projects, our bankers are lending support by funding the projects. Also, we are collaborating with many of our customers for timely payments to enable required cash flow to complete the projects.”

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